Monthly Archives: January 2020

A Poem for Our Times

Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills.
It is not the effort nor the failure tires.
The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.

It is not your system or clear sight that mills
Down small to the consequence a life requires;
Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills.

They bled an old dog dry yet the exchange rills
Of young dog blood gave but a month’s desires;
The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.

It is the Chinese tombs and the slag hills
Usurp the soil, and not the soil retires.
Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills.

Not to have fire is to be a skin that shrills.
The complete fire is death. From partial fires
The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.

It is the poems you have lost, the ills
From missing dates, at which the heart expires.
Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills.
The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.
William Empson (1906-1984)

OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! I gotta letter from the MN Dept of Revenue! They’re gonna refund my 2017 Underpayment of Estimated Income Tax penalty! I don’t gotta do nothing! They’re gonna mail me a check or directly deposit it in ma bank! Now, for the important stuff: where am I gonna spend that $5?

NYT Critic’s Pick Movie(s)

I Wish I Knew

NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary, History Directed by Zhangke Jia
In this elegiac documentary, the director Jia Zhangke explores Shanghai through its people, stories and soaring cranes.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Zombi Child

NYT Critic’s Pick Fantasy Directed by Bertrand Bonello
A new film about a schoolgirl’s erotic obsession examines the social hierarchies of midcentury Haiti and present-day France.
By GLENN KENNY

Color Out of Space

NYT Critic’s Pick Unrated Horror, Sci-Fi Directed by Richard Stanley
Nicolas Cage and Joely Richardson face an evil shade of lilac in this inventive sci-fi horror film directed by Richard Stanley.
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Food! Glorious Food!

After Culinary and Literary Acclaim, She’s Moving to the Woods

“Ms. Regan is a 40-year-old chef from Indiana with a Michelin star who last summer published “Burn the Place,” perhaps the definitive Midwest drunken-lesbian food memoir. On its cover, the chef David Chang calls her one of the best chefs he has ever known.”
The chef Iliana Regan created a hit Chicago restaurant and wrote a tough, award-winning memoir. But her real dream lives in a cabin in northern Michigan.
By Kim Severson

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK

Is Restaurant Noise a Crime? Our Critic Mounts a Ringing Defense

By Pete Wells

WIRECUTTER

Organize Your Fridge (and Keep It Neat)

A handful of simple items can help you organize your fridge the way the pros do, to avoid wasting both food and time.
By Marguerite Preston

Poach perfect: Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for buttery prawns, spicy chicken soup and ginger rhubarb

Butter-poached prawns and celeriac

Spicy chicken and cabbage soup

Clotted cream and ginger mousse with rooibos-poached rhubarb

A GOOD APPETITE

A Milky Cake Where More Is More

Adding dulce de leche and two kinds of coconut milk to a tres leches cake makes it supremely creamy and rich.

Cinnamon is sprinkled over this seis leches cake.
By Melissa Clark

EAT

End Your Meal Elegantly With Candied Oranges

A cold candied orange.
By Gabrielle Hamilton

WINE SCHOOL

Searching for the Distinctive Character of California Syrah

By Eric Asimov

NY Times Critic's Pick Movie(s)

Ain’t none.

— Of Possible Interest —

‘Weathering With You’ Review: Letting the Sun Shine In

In the latest from the director of the hit anime “Your Name,” two teenagers find mysterious rays of hope amid catastrophe.
By Manohla Dargis

At last! At long last! Something to make the new Cats look like a masterpiece:

‘Dolittle’ Review: Baa, Humbug

Robert Downey Jr. plays the doctor turned animal whisperer in this dreary and misbegotten adventure.

He can sail with the animals: Robert Downey Jr., left, and Harry Collett, adventuring for a cure.
By Manohla Dargis

Food! Glorious Food!

How Jean-Georges Vongerichten Went From ‘No Good’ Kid to 4-Star Chef

The globally prolific chef started out as a small-town truant and troublemaker. Then he got to work.
By ALAN RICHMAN

Current Job: Award-Winning Chef. Education: University of IHOP.

The nation’s chain restaurants don’t reap much critical praise, but many high-end chefs say they got a priceless, practical education there.
By Priya Krishna

A GOOD APPETITE

A Roast Chicken With Even More Crispy Bits

You can rub your bird down with salt, or you can try Melissa Clark’s latest trick for an exterior that crackles like a potato chip.

Don’t forget the pan drippings here: They’re a bright, lemony counterpoint to the tender meat.
By Melissa Clark

Dumpling Flavor, Stripped Down to Its Essence

Alison Roman takes Russian pelmeni, and turns them into a creamy, meaty-without-meat bowl.
By ALISON ROMAN

EAT

Chinese Roast Pork on Garlic Bread: What More Could You Want?

One of the great New York sandwiches, courtesy of China, Italy and the Catskills.
By SAM SIFTON

Put These Recipes on Repeat

A sheet-pan chicken and potatoes, a spicy slow-roasted salmon, red curry lentils: You’ll want to make these again and again.
By EMILY WEINSTEIN

The Cookbooks You Need for 2020, as Selected by Chefs

The authors Alison Roman, Niki Segnit, Diana Henry and more share the volumes they’ll be returning to again and again this year.
By MARIAN BULL

Anthony Bourdain’s final book to be published this year

World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, which the late chef and television host was working on when he died, is due out in October

‘Reflections and insights’ … Anthony Bourdain in 2005.

FRONT BURNER

Fondue Is Just the Beginning

This tome, from Meredith Erickson, an author of the Joe Beef cookbook, highlights the best of the Alps.
By Florence Fabricant

FRONT BURNER

These Godiva Chocolates Are Meant for Home Cooks

The candymaker has released a new line of chocolates designed for home kitchens.
By FLORENCE FABRICANT

Among the Sober and ‘Sober Curious’? Your Bartender

As interest in Dry January and sobriety rises, and as social media opens up new conversations, the bar business has begun to evolve.
By Becky Hughes

Gladys Bourdain, Who Helped Her Son Reach an Audience, Dies at 85

A Times copy editor, she kick-started Anthony Bourdain’s career when she helped him get a tell-all article about the restaurant world published in The New Yorker.
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIK

Georges Duboeuf, Creator of the Beaujolais Nouveau Craze, Dies at 86

He almost single-handedly started the rush for the first wines of the Beaujolais harvest.

Georges Duboeuf in 1985. He helped turn the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau into a worldwide phenomenon.
By Eric Asimov

NYT Critic’s Pick Movie(s)

Earth

NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter
In this sobering documentary, Nikolaus Geyrhalter looks at how humans are changing the planet one backhoe at a time.
By MANOHLA DARGIS

Système K

NYT Critic’s Pick Documentary Directed by Renaud Barret
The poverty and chaos of Kinshasa drive an art scene that’s vivid, unrelenting and genuinely dangerous.
By GLENN KENNY

Food! Glorious Food!

Fueling Progress: On a crowded highway of convenience stores, 36Lyn is an oasis of quality

That’s ma gas station!
by Zach McCormick

Ken Friedman of the Spotted Pig Will Pay $240,000 in Sexual Harassment Case

The restaurateur has agreed to a payout for 11 former employees, including 20 percent of his profits from the restaurant, after an investigation by New York’s attorney general.
By KIM SEVERSON and JULIA MOSKIN

Impossible Dumplings and Beyond Buns: Will China Buy Fake Meat?

Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat want to expand to the Chinese market but face significant governmental and cultural hurdles.
By DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY

In a Burger World, Can Sweetgreen Scale Up?

The chain that made salads chic, modular and ecologically conscious now wants to sell you a lot of other stuff.
By ELIZABETH G. DUNN

What Will We Eat in 2020? Something Toasted, Something Blue

The food forecasters are at it again, predicting the next big vegetables and sweets, cuisines and causes.

Food from Japan, like soufflé pancakes, is expected to keep enchanting American diners in 2020.
By Kim Severson

LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION

Letter of Recommendation: Ginger Gum

A solution for digestive distress — and the more existential kind as well.
By ANNA HEZEL

T’s Favorite Nourishing Recipes for a More Healthful 2020

A roundup of vibrant dishes for the new year, from a vegetable-packed green soup to a comforting persimmon porridge.

A GOOD APPETITE

This Soup Has Salad Aspirations

Loaded with greens and other vegetables, plus farro and creamy potato, this soup walks the line between healthful and heavy.

Lemony spinach soup with farro.Credit…
By Melissa Clark

A January Dinner Party That Doesn’t Deprive

For exquisitely simple dishes that don’t skimp on flavor, David Tanis looks to Japan.

Tarragon, dill, shiso, mint, basil, cilantro, parsley and watercress are paired with cool, custardy silken tofu in this refreshing salad.
By David Tanis

EAT